Gear at over 60mph?

I was gonna start a new thread but this thread seems like it fits. I took a 5 hour road trip a few weeks back into a 20-30mph headwind. Gear hunting was driving me nuts so I put it in S4 for the last four hours at 80mph. RPM's just over 3k I think.

In retrospect, I'm wondering if this was ok do? Oil temp wasn't any higher than normal, maybe just a hair on the gauge.

Is it ok to blast off at 80mph for hours on end in S4? (assuming you don't care about mpg). I figured it was sorta like towing where the manual tells you specifically to to use S4. I wasn't towing but did have a major headwind.

 

Going thru this right now on a trip with strong cross winds and inclines loaded down with gear. 5th gear is useless have to keep it in 4. Transmission temps are not spiking when kept in 4.

Not trying to start an oil change debate. My opinion is the high rpm qualifies as severe service and warrants more frequent oil change. In summer jumping a grade to 5w30 also to handle the higher rpm and being more shear resistant. I have convinced myself 4.56 gears is what makes sense for me.

I am going to be running higher Rpms dropping into 4 or running 4.56. My hope is the gears will allow me to use 5 again loaded down or in the mountains.

 

I was also wondering about the oil and bumping up a grade.

 

I've done plenty of driving at 80 in S4. I don't think the RPM's will hurt it. My MR2 was around 4000 RPM's at 80, IIRC.

I would tend to agree that this type of driving could put you in the "extreme" driving conditions category. I've been doing 5K oil changes due to meeting multiple criteria based on the manual.

You'll get a bunch of different opinions about running 5W-30. But, a lot of people agree that 0W-20 is only recommended due to CAFE regulations. They recommend 5W-30 for the same engine in Puerto Rico.

 

You're fine! I towed a trailer across the country (1,500 miles so technically halfway) with one of Hyun/Kia's most unreliable 4-cylinders from the past 15 years (2.4L GDI, 2016MY) spinning at 3-5k RPM for hours on end and an oil analysis after indicated it was doing just fine.

I also zoomed around in an '01 RAV4 in the past where 80 mph had the engine spinning at somewhere in the low 3000s for RPM and it's still zipping around town.

It's not a 1:1 comparison either way but engines are pretty happy once up to temp.

 

So it’s been ages but I had to log in and check.




Holy $&*$(($(!!!

how is that even possible? I pulled out the calculator and if you only allow 1 minute per post and assume somebody was a member 10 years, 100k is 30 minutes per day, 365 day a year for a decade. The top two… it would be more than a full time job.

my own post count is kinda funny

 

Ok, something has to be wrong. That guy with 112M joined in 2008. Math works out to 19,000 posts per DAY. A post every 4.5 seconds. Without sleep. For 16 years. Not possible.

 

Most likely a Bot.

 

I've seen those threads about Puerto Rico and oil lol.

I wish I knew more about the subject. Does the engine really need/require 0-20? Or is the oil weight requirement entirely temp dependent, suggesting it's totally fine to run a higher weight oil?

 

It seems that the 0W-20 requirement is only there to satisfy CAFE regulations, by squeezing out an extra .0001 mpg.

If you look at the graph in the Puerto Rico section in the manual, it recommends 0W-20, 5W-20, and 5W-30 in any climate. It only recommends not using 10W- 30 or 15W-40 not be used in sub-freezing temperatures.






And, even in the US section, it recommends that oil of a higher viscosity "may be better suited if the vehicle is driven at high speeds, or under extreme load conditions."

What constitutes high speeds, or extreme load conditions is not clear. I would just go with whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

Yeah exactly. That's what made me think I should be running 5-30 oil if I'm doing 80mph in S4 in the summer time with wind.